Tonga

Tonga , officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is a Polynesian sovereign state and archipelago comprising 169 islands of which 36 are inhabited. The total surface area is about 750 square kilometres scattered over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of the southern Pacific Ocean. It has a population 103,000 people[5] of whom 70% reside on the main island of Tongatapu.

Tonga stretches over about 800 kilometres  in a north-south line – about a third of the distance from New Zealand to Hawaii. It is surrounded by Fiji and Wallis and Futuna (France) to the northwest, Samoa to the northeast, Niue to the east, Kermadec (part of New Zealand) to the southwest, and New Caledonia (France) and Vanuatu to the farther west.

Tonga became known as the Friendly Islands because of the congenial reception accorded to Captain James Cook on his first visit in 1773. He arrived at the time of the ʻinasi festival, the yearly donation of the First Fruits to the Tuʻi Tonga (the islands' paramount chief) and so received an invitation to the festivities. According to the writer William Mariner, the chiefs wanted to kill Cook during the gathering but could not agree on a plan.

Tonga became fully independent from Britain in May 1970, but had never relinquished its sovereignty to any foreign power. In 2010, Tonga took a decisive step towards becoming a fully functioning constitutional monarchy, after legislative reforms paved the way for its first partial representative elections.

Source: Wikipedia

Back again! Sorry for my absence, but I've been inundated with one 

cat emergency after another. Today's theme, if you notice, are all about islands! 

These are the last cards I have from the past two years which I never got to

blog and will now resume showing cards I've received currently.

Special thanks to Arnold for arranging this card from Tonga!

Sent: 7 August 2014   Received: 4 September 2014   Travelled: 28 days